do you lay together beats with fl studio?

Another great investment for music composition is near-field monitors. You can get them relatively inexpensive (KRK 5" for $150 each). Headphones are good for most things for short periods of time, but they get old.

Generally speaking, studio monitors give a much flatter and more accurate response at all frequencies and volumes. More importantly (to me at least), they are very tough. I fuck up a lot and get a lot of loud honks and pops that would destroy normal speakers where monitors don't even bat an eye.

I've got the previous-gen KRK 5" and the 12" sub. Excellent combo, although you have to dial back the sub some if you stick it under a desk like I did.

I also have a Nano Patch inline with my monitors. It's a lifesaver for being able to turn things down when your system gets complicated. It belongs as the last thing in the chain before the monitors, so no matter what other crazy stuff you do, you know where your volume knob is at. It also has a handy mute feature which I've used when something freaked out and I didn't know immediately how to stop it.

Another aside, this has been one of my "we're living in the future" moments. I was in high school when Nine Inch Nails hit the scene and digital recording started to take off. First there were ADAT machines, then computer-based recording started to take off. I remember reading about Trent Reznor recording The Downward Spiral on a beefed-up PowerMac G3. Computers then wouldn't handle tons of instruments, they just did the tracking for you. You'd still have to hook up a bunch of outboard synths to generate sounds to go to tape.

I hated electronic music until Pretty Hate Machine was released. Then I saw the light.

Jehos wrote:

Now, at my desk right here I have a 15" laptop with Ableton and Komplete installed. It's basically a complete software studio I can throw in my backpack, with room left over for an audio interface, some MIDI controllers, and a couple mics. We're living in an age where guys like Sonny Moore can actually launch a music career with nothing but their own talent and well under $3k in hardware and software, and their whole "studio" can be carried around in a satchel.

I started composing with CakeWalk 3 and the FM synth on a Sound Blaster and moved up from there. I still have my Roland JV-1080 and Kurzweil K2000.

The difference in cost these days is amazing. Nowadays, any one of my works easily uses the equivalent of $50,0000 in hardware synths and effects.

Another thing I love about using VSTs is the practically unlimited number of voices. I'm not going to go into detail, but trying to get big sound out of a few 32-voice synths is HARD.

Yeah its pretty amazing what a powerful laptop and $1000 in software (daw+plugins+vst intruments) can accomplish. Theres still no substitute for analog gear like consoles, hardware EQ/comps etc. But the cost of replicating the amount of hardware eqs you could load vs its plugin subsitute would be mind blowing. You can spend $2600 or so for an API 2500 stereo compressor, or a few hundred for the plugin version which while wont sound as good as the real thing, at least you could put as many instances your rig can handle. Put the 2500 on 4 or or 8 stereo mix busses. To do that in the real world would cost you well over 10K just for that sound alone. Look at the UAD series, even the top of the line UAD card with all the plugins ($5000 or so). If you were to buy the hardware equivalents I'd reckon it would cost over a $100k easy.

Then there's the heat, power consumption (hardware consumes A LOT, you dont wanna know the costs of running an SSL console) and having to manually write down settings each time you change something. Also maintenance, those old tube comps/eqs require constant babying like the pultecs or especially the imfamous Fairchild 660 comp. The tubes for those things are pretty much out of existence these days.

With plugins (or in the box, i.e ITB) you not only save huge and have the ability run as many as you can handle for the initial price, you can save the settings instantly, automate them, transfer to other computers running the same stuff. The only big downside for me other than software will never accurately replicate all the vagaries of analog electronics, its the form factor. I hate using a mouse/keyboard for everything. Its so much more fun to be able to twist knobs and push buttons and get instant feedback. Yeah you can map MIDI knobs and buttons per control but this gets tiresome. However at least you can still use analog gear on s smaller level, i.e. hardware summing boxes, stuff like the API lunchbox etc. Do as much as you can ITB, then sum out your busses (i.e. drum mix, guitars, keys, bass, vocals etc) into stereo stems and run them though some nice hardware EQs/Comps to put some life into em. Makes such a big difference.

I remember reading an interview back in the 90s with Bill Leeb from Front Line Assembly talking about how they produced Hardwired iirc. Huge 92 channel SSl console, several Akai S1000 samplers (yall ever used those old Akai samplers? If you think its a pita with modern software like Kontakt, try working with those things. They sound great but man I cant imagine dicking around with several of them at once) and it was all done on 2" 24track tape. For electronic/industrial sound doing all that on modern software is rather easy. I can easily layer a ton of samples and what not, and have enough space not to run out of room, no so on hardware were real estate is limited. Plus I cant imagine how they pulled off the timing and sequencing using 90's based sofware (think they were using an Amiga).

Your tracking should be done with headphones, then you listen to the mix down on the monitors.

Never heard of that one. You typically use headphones in the live room working with other musicians, or in a room where you cant use speakers (apartment, bedroom etc). But ppl track using monitors all the time. I never wear headphones unless I have to really.

Anyway yeah get the best monitors you can afford, but not before properly treating your room. This makes SUCH a huge difference its not even funny. Even a cheap sound treatment kit for $150 or so will make a pair of $500 monitors sound better than an untreated room with a pair of $1000 monitors. If you're doing a lot of electronic style music then maybe a sub would help as well, especially for those low bass frequencies cheap monitors typically cant replicate.

Yeah thats usually a problem for those who rent. Well there are portable treament options that use stands. It'll be fugly but still I think its better to have treatment than none, although if you're lucky to be in an acoustically well sounding room you could make do. Something like Auralex ProMax. For a novice though I dont think its required. I just brought up the room treatment angle because I dont wanna see anyone spend a ton on good monitors and find out they wont sound that great in a crappy room. Best to get something in the middle and spend the rest on whatever you can to treat the room. If youre just starting out figure out music and the software than I wouldnt bother as theres more important things to spend cash on. There was a thread about this very issue for those in apartments on Gearslutz, I gotta see if I can find the link.

Anyway KRK Rokits are popular for the price (low end), but I would suggest the Mackie MR5MK2. I know several ppl who swear by em for lower end monitors, and for the beginner they're all you would need anyway. Sweetwater usually has these on sale for $129 each so I'd wait whenever the next sale happens before jumping on em for $149 which even at that price is pretty good.

I don't make music (interested in doing it at some point though, but... time is hard to find nowadays) but I am pimping zircon's newest album Identity Sequence everywhere (because it fucking rocks - seriously... track 9 - Colossus, GO LISTEN NOW!!) and he uses FL Studio.

He actually lists all the gear he uses on his About page on his website.

How do you guys treat your rooms in a non-invasive, not-ugly way? Can it be done?

I'm in a rental apartment and can't actually put anything up. Also the music studio happens to double as the computer work room. It's just the realities of space for me.

Probably the best way would be to build your own treatment panels. There are plans out there that basically involve building a 1x4 frame, filling it with some kind of dense material, then wrapping the thing in speaker cloth. If I were putting up panels in a rented room, I'd make several of those with some picture frame hooks on the back and just hang them like pictures. The advantage of DIY is you can make the size and shape however you want to look good in the room. Big panels, small panels, narrow tall panels, whatever. Pick a cover fabric that looks nice and matches the color scheme of the room, and it can look kind of like modern art.

I have monitors too to add to my pile. A pair of Mackie MR8's sit on stagetech stands on either side of my desk (that's right, you know your "computer speakers" are awesome when they can't fit on your desk ).

The push looks interesting, but I've got my eye on a bass guitar instead at present

I have monitors too to add to my pile. A pair of Mackie MR8's sit on stagetech stands on either side of my desk (that's right, you know your "computer speakers" are awesome when they can't fit on your desk ).

The push looks interesting, but I've got my eye on a bass guitar instead at present

I have monitors too to add to my pile. A pair of Mackie MR8's sit on stagetech stands on either side of my desk (that's right, you know your "computer speakers" are awesome when they can't fit on your desk ).

The push looks interesting, but I've got my eye on a bass guitar instead at present

Just got out of a serious jam. I must have been rockin for about 6 or 7 hours straight tonight, actually forgot to eat dinner at one point. Came up with some nice arpeggios and just started to build on top of em layer after layer, then happened upon some neat drum riffs. Spent the rest of the day experimenting with different drum samples. Not even close to mixing it yet, still tracking and dicking around, but its times like these where TV and movies and all that crap takes a backseat when you're in the groove creatively and dont wanna let go. Time sure does fly when you're having fun.

I put aside my fears and anxiety about screwing something up and started to learn and play. Nothing sounds professional but I like the feel of doing this. I may just keep playing with this for a while.